South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Missing years a mystery in ‘Stay Awake’; Reacher pays a visit to ‘Hotel California’
With three thrillers to her credit, Megan Goldin has established a reputation for delivering distinct plots that start strong and don’t lose their grip on the reader until the last page.
That high standard continues in “Stay Awake” in which Liv Reese suddenly wakes up in a taxi headed for her Brooklyn apartment. But she doesn’t remember getting in the cab; her last memory is being at her desk as a writer at a New York magazine. She doesn’t have her keys nor her cell phone; when she tries to wake her roommate, she’s confronted by an angry couple who claims neither she nor her roommate live there.
Stumbling into the magazine, Liv is stunned to find the office has changed and she doesn’t know any of the staff, though some workers greet her warmly, asking how she has been the last two years. Adding to the mystery, her body has become a kind of graffiti board containing many handwritten messages telling her to stay awake.
As Liv tries to figure out what is going on, NYPD homicide detective Darcy Halliday investigates the murder of a man where similar messages have been left at the crime scene.
Goldin seamlessly ups the tension as she plays with the timeline to link Liv’s story with the homicide investigation. Liv apparently has lost two years of her life and has no idea where she has been or how her life has been completely dismantled. Liv is confused but Goldin doesn’t make her a victim.
As she has in her other two thrillers, Australian writer Goldin persuasively delves into the nuances of America. Crisp dialogue elevates “Stay Awake,” especially as Darcy, who is new to the homicide unit, tries to establish her worth as a detective as she and her new partner learn to work together and establish parameters.
“Stay Awake” will have readers staying awake to the last page.
Check it out
A trend in short story collections is to wrap an anthology around the works of a musician, a movie or a specific album. Readers have been treated to collections inspired by the songs of Jimmy Buffett and Joni Mitchell and even the films of the Marx Brothers.
The Eagles’ haunting song “Hotel California” certainly lends plenty of fodder for this tidy collection of mystery stories based on the group’s album. After all, the lyrics “This could be Heaven or this could be Hell” and “Such a lovely place (such a lovely place)/ Such a lovely face” immediately deliver a spooky atmosphere.
Sarasota editor Don Bruns has gathered eight solid writers who do justice to the Eagles’ anthem and the album’s other songs while putting a spin on the stories behind the songs on this landmark record.
A main draw of “Hotel California” is a new Jack Reacher story written by Andrew Child, who has taken over the best-selling series from his brother, Lee Child. “New Kid in Town” is vintage Reacher as the drifter comes to a town to right a wrong before moving on. This time, Reacher hitches a ride with a man who is looking for his long-lost daughter.
“New Kid in Town” sets the anthology’s tone but the story has equally good company. Forensic specialist, screenwriter and author Jennifer Graeser Dornbush evokes the lyrics’ nuances in her story “Hotel California” in which a social influencer’s desire for fame and fortune may backfire. She should have remembered: “You can check out any time you like/But you can never leave!”
Heather Graham, who divides her time between South Florida and New Orleans, uses a graveyard in the Big Easy for the eerie “Pretty Maids All in a Row.” Bruns, who has written 17 novels, tackles an assassin’s latest job in his wry “Life in the Fast Lane.”
Each story in “Hotel California” is well-thought out but the collection would have been better served if Bruns had included a short description of each author as these tales might inspire readers to seek out their other works. As it is, read the stories while listening to the album.